Knob assembly



Dec. 23, 1969 GODDARD ETAL KNOB ASSEMBLY Filed June 26, 1967 WILLIAM H.GOL-DARD HENRY C. HOPF INVENTORS ATTORNEYS United States Patent3,484,893 KNOB ASSEMBLY William H. Goddard and Henry C. Hopf, Rochester,N.Y., assignors to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N .Y., acorporation of New Jersey Filed June 26, 1967, Ser. No. 648,585 Int. Cl.Eb 1/00 US. Cl. 16114 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A knobassembly includes a knob which is detachably secured to a mounting leverby cooperation between an end portion of the lever and a pair of fingerson the knob.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This inventionincludes within its scope an improved knob assembly in which a knob isdetachable secured to a mounting lever. The knob has a lever receivingand guiding portion, and a resilent post transverse to the lever and inthe path thereof adapted to nest in a recess in the lever.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an improvedknob assembly for detachably securing a knob to a mounting lever in asimple, reliable, efficient and facile manner.

Objects and advantages other than those set forth above will be apparentfrom the following description when read in connection with theaccompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top perspective viewshowing a knob secured to a mounting lever;

FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the knob as sembly of FIG. 1 inits assembled position; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged bottom view of the knob assembly in a disassembledposition.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawing, a knobassembly of this invention comprises a knob 4 having a serrated outersurface to facilitate manual manipulation thereof by an operator. Thebottom of knob 4 adjacent one end thereof is provided with a recess 6 inwhich a surface 8 defining the bottom of the recess has an outwardlyextending preferably cylindrical post 10 having a diametrical slot 12along its entire length to provide a pair of resilient fingers 14, eachhaving an arcuate outer surface. The knob 4 also has an opening 16 asbest seen in FIG. 3 extending from one end thereof to recess 6 forreceiving and guiding one end of a mounting lever 18. Since a surface20' defining opening 16 is substantially in the same plane as surface 8,post 10 which is longer than the height of opening 16 extends completelyacross opening 16 and in the path thereof. The lever 18 is ofsubstantially the same cross sectional configuration as opening 16, andfurther has a generally V-shaped slot 22 at its end defined by beveledsurfaces 23,

3,484,893 Patented Dec. 23, 1969 and terminating in an enlarged circularrecess 24 of substantially the same diameter as the diameter of post 10in its normal, unflexed position. The width of slot 22 measured by theshortest distance between surfaces 23 is less than the diameter of post10 in its normal position. The detachable connection is achieved byinserting the end of lever 18 through opening 16 until edges 23 ofV-shaped slot 22 engage resilient fingers 14. Further insertion of lever18 causes fingers 14 to be flexed toward one another in order to passthrough V-shaped slot 22, the fingers 14 then returning to their normalposition when moved into recess 24 causing the arcuate surfaces thereofto engage portions of the surface of recess 24. The slot 12 in post 10is substantially in alignment with V- shaped slot 22 so that fingers 14of post 10 will flex in the proper direction for passage through slot22. With certain materials used for knob 4, it is useful to relievematerial around the base of fingers 14, as shown at 21, to increase theresiliency of the fingers.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference toone embodiment thereof but it will be understood that variations andmodifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of theinvention as described hereinabove, and as defined in the appendedclaims.

We claim:

1. A knob assembly comprising:

a mounting lever having an elongate and generally fiat end portion, saidend portion having an opening therein comprising a slot extending froman edge of the lever to a recess in the lever, said recess having awidth greater than the minimum width of said slot; and

a knob assembled on said end portion of said lever,

said knob having an opening therein with a crosssectional shapecorresponding generally to the crosssectional shape of said end portionof said lever whereby during assembly said end portion of the lever isinsertable into the opening with the opening serving to guide the leverinto the knob, a pair of elongate fingers positioned in spaced relationand adjacent to each other on the knob, at least one of said fingersbeing movable toward and away from the other of said fingers, saidfingers being located with respect to said opening in the knob so thatduring assembly the slot in the end portion of the lever is guided bythe opening toward said fingers by relative movement between the leverand the knob when said end portion of the lever is aligned with saidopening, said fingers being dimensioned and positioned with respect toeach other and with respect to the dimensions of said slot and saidrecess in the lever so that relative movement between the lever and saidfingers during assembly can cause deflection of said one of said fingerstoward the other of said fingers to allow said fingers to pass throughsaid slot and into said recess.

2. The knob assembly as set forth in claim 1 wherein said knob has arecess, and said fingers are positioned wholly within said recess of theknob.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,727,771 12/1955 Adams 24214839,047 12/ 1908 Sylvester 24230 3,302,826 2/ 1967 Henchert 16-1 14BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner D. L. TROUTMAN, Assistant Examiner

